Robert Lee Sunderland Jr.

Robert Lee Sunderland Jr., age 75, of Joppa, MD died on January 21, 2010 at University of Maryland Hospital, Baltimore, MD. Born in Baltimore, MD, he was the son of the late Robert Lee Sunderland Sr. and Loretta Eva Eckert Sunderland. He attended Old Post Road School and later graduated from Bel Air High School at the age of 17, where he was the youngest graduate in his class. A veteran, he joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 and was know as "Flyboy" where he spotted Soviet submarines off of the U.S. coast using radar. He was discharged in 1955 and married his high school sweetheart on March 3, 1956. He went on to work for Glen L. Martin in electronics where he was sent to Denver, CO and Moses Lake, WA to work at missile sites. In 1963-64 he went on to work at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory working various projects contracted with the Department of Defense. His favorite projects were working in the development of pacemakers, tracking and coding satellites, and several satellite projects. He was extremely family oriented, loved to fish and was an avid Red Cross blood donor.

Mr. Sunderland is survived by his wife, Myrna Dale Gentry Sunderland of Joppa, MD; children, Loretta Gayle Lowe and husband, Harry Ernest, of Pylesville, MD, Robert Lee Sunderland III and wife, Jean Suzanne, of Joppa, MD, Bryan Kevin Sunderland and wife, Jacqueline, of Arnold, MD and Karen Lynn Tichy and husband, Michael, of Cary, NC, formerly of Linden, MI; brothers, Edward Charles Sunderland of Towson, MD and William Bernard Sunderland of Street, MD; sister, Doris Audrey Wilson of Essex, MD; and was "Pop-Pop Rob" to Ashley Elizabeth and Matthew Thomas Sunderland of Arnold, MD.